


An Act of Grief

by surena_13



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-03
Updated: 2012-02-03
Packaged: 2017-10-30 13:10:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/332069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/surena_13/pseuds/surena_13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Let me kiss you hard in the pouring rain - Lana Del Rey</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Act of Grief

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: not mine.

She has Elosha’s book clutched tightly in her hands, pressed against her chest. She’ll never have the priestess’ advice again. Thousands of years old sacred words are all that is left to guide her and that thought terrifies her. Elosha’s wisdom and knowledge of the scrolls of Pythia gave her faith in herself, in the myth that is Earth. She liked the priestess, but she left her lifeless body in Kobol’s forest, not even giving her a proper burial.

 

Digging her nails into the leather cover of the book, Laura blinks away her tears. A sacrifice in blood. She never expected it to be Elosha, the person she trusted most after Billy. Billy, the boy who had been just an assistant when they met. She curls up on the hard ground, hoping to find some warmth, some comfort as a silent tear rolls down her cheek.

 

“Madam President?” Lee’s voice says softly as he enters her makeshift tent, a few tarps thrown over a branch. He kneels beside her and Laura furiously wipes away her tears. She doesn’t want to show him her weakness, not now. Pushing herself up, she check on more time if her cheeks are still wet, before she turns around to face him.

 

“Yes, captain?” Her voice quivers, only slightly, but she can on Lee’s face that he heard it. A look of pity flashes over his face. She steels herself for his words of comfort that will offer her nothing but empty hope. She has lost enough people to know that what she is told during a period of grieving doesn’t help. It doesn’t lessen the pain, not does it bring those who are lost back.

 

“Come with me, please,” he says to her surprise and holds out his hand. She looks at it with wide eyes, but Lee doesn’t waver, never taking his eyes off her face. Feeling his stare, she lifts her gaze to meet his incredibly blue eyes. There is no pity there now, only hope. “Laura, please.”

 

Slowly she lifts her hand and places it in Lee’s, fingertips sliding over the warm, rough skin of his palm before his fingers curls around her in a loose but reassuring grip and helps her up. Without a word, he takes Elosha’s book from her other hand and puts it on a patch of dry ground. She feels empty without it as if she is missing a piece of herself. She reaches for it but Lee stops her.

 

“Leave it. You don’t need it now.” Laura wants to say that he is wrong, that she does need it, that those ancient words are the only thing that keep her going, but she lets herself be guided away from it, out of the tent into the open where the small raindrops fall on her face, her hands, making wet spots on her already damp clothes.

 

Nobody in the camp notices them or pretends not notice them. She know she should be worried that Zarek and Meier are conspiring something or that Agathon and the Cylon are the first happy people she’s seen since the genocide. Only Kara seems to be completely unfazed by all that they have been through, calmly cleaning her gun while keeping a watchful eye on Zarek.

 

Lee pulls her away from the camp, into the forest. They walk side by side in silence, fingers intertwined. If anyone who didn’t know them had seen then, they would have thought they were just a couple, taking a walk in the forest, enjoying nature and each other’s company. Maybe that is what they’re doing, Laura isn’t sure, doesn’t know what Lee’s thoughts were behind this.

 

She lets her eyes wander, taking in the green of the leafs, the smell of wet grass. Rain always made a forest come alive and it’s no different on the planet of the Gods. Laura hadn’t expected to ever feel solid ground underneath her feet again or to walk in the forest or feel the rain, but here she is. And even though the price for this moment was too high, she feels a calmness settle over her as Lee guides her into a clearing. She feels alive for as long as it lasts.

 

“Lee, what are we doing here?” she asks after they’ve stood in silence for a while. He doesn’t reply immediately. She looks at him, at his profile, the way droplets of water runs down his face washing away some of the dirt that still lingers on his skin.

 

“Getting away from it all,” he replies and turns to stand in front of her, gently taking her free hand in his. Laura looks down at their hands, how pale and fragile hers look in his strong, darker hands. He brushes his thumb over her knuckles before bringing her right hand up and brushing his lips over the back off it.

 

“Why?” The question comes out softer than she intended and she wonders if he has heard her when the sound of raindrops on leafs surrounds them. But he raises his eyes to meet hers and she knows that he has.

 

“Because you need it.” His reply is short and sharp, but accurate, Laura realizes, so accurate. She doesn’t stop him when he leans in, cups her cheek and captures her lips in a soft kiss. His lips are chapped and rough, but his touch is delicate as if he’s afraid he’s going to hurt her with a kiss. His other hand slips around her waist, pulling her closer to him.

 

Placing one hand on the back of his neck, she tries to deepen the kiss, to feel more of him, to taste him, but his kiss stays soft, his lips barely there, a mere brushing of his lips against hers. But his touch fills the void inside her and she feels whole again. Until she pulls away, breaking the kiss, and the feeling disappears again.

 

“I’m dying, Lee,” she whispers as a question, as a reminder to him. So he knows what he is doing. That this is only temporary and he will lose her, whether it’s here on this planet or in a few months. She could very well join Elosha on her path to the Elysian fields today.

 

“We’re all dying, Laura,” comes his whispered response. And she smiles in spite of herself before she crushes his lips against his. There’s no time for soft and gentle. She wants him, his tongue against hers, tasting, she wants his teeth. She wants the fight she knows he has inside him. And he gives it to her.

 

With his strong arms Lee pushes her against a tree, pinning her hands against it as his teeth sink into her bottom lip. She willingly parts her lips to let him in, moaning when he does. It has started pouring, the heavy raindrops, soaking through their clothes, running down their faces, mingling with their kiss, but Laura barely notices. She wraps a leg around his hips, forcing him to come closer.

 

She knows this moment won’t last. It will end when their kiss does. When they’ll return to camp, she’ll be the dying leader again, the burden of humanity on her weakening shoulders. She’ll grief for every death that has happened and will happen. And Lee will be her protector again, standing by her side, helping her when she feels she can’t walk anymore.

 

But for now, for this one beautiful moment, Lee’s body pressed against her own, his lips claiming hers, she is just a woman kissing a man in the pouring rain. 


End file.
